How Ancient Rome’s Concrete Has Survived 2,000 Years (2017)

Re:How Ancient Rome’s Concrete Has Survived 2,000 Years (2017) by darkerside on Monday July 22, 2019 @05:38AM (#20496491)

I agree with you on survivorship bias. I by no means think it's random chance that these structures survived.

All I take issue with is treating these as anything more than "impressive for their time". There isn't some secret to emulate here, and we are not incapable of building structures that would stand a similar test of time. That whole part is silly clickbait.

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Re:How Ancient Rome’s Concrete Has Survived 2,000 Years (2017) by jbay808 on Monday July 22, 2019 @08:59PM (#20503613)

Thanks for clarifying your position.

I agree that we could build 2,000 year structures when we intend to. I wouldn't be surprised if some of our nation-scale works like the Hoover Dam last that long. The Long Now foundation is even trying to build something that lasts for 10,000 years.

But I disagree that there's no secret to be discovered in Roman concrete. Materials science involves a lot of guess-and-test work and luck, and there's no harm in exploring whether the ancients might have had better luck with some of their guesses.

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